Former Falcons star Roddy White has lashed out against the backlash the franchise is receiving for drafting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of the NFL draft months after signing Kirk Cousins to a big-money deal.
The ink was hardly dry on a blockbuster contract with Cousins, who just signed a four-year deal worth $180 million, with $100 million guaranteed, but the Falcons went ahead and selected Penix as his presumable successor with the No. 8 overall pick in the draft Thursday night.
It did not take long for reports to emanate that Cousins felt blindsided by the pick.
Posting on X, White defended his former franchise for selecting Penix.
“Met Michael Penix Jr today was clean cool dude going to be great for us and the city. Why we got to hear this nonsense about Kirk being blindsided,” White wrote Friday night.
“We been picking in the top 10 the last 5 seasons cause we didn’t get a qb when Matt [Ryan] was about done lesson learned.”
White also said in the tweet that “RG was blindsided,” a possible reference to how Washington drafted Cousins in the fourth round the same year they took Robert Griffin III No. 2 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft.
White, 42, played his entire 11-year NFL career with the Falcons from 2005-15, making four Pro Bowls and getting selected as a first-team All-Pro in 2010.
The main reason we have heard about Cousins’ reaction to the pick is because his agent, Mike McCartney, spoke about it with reporters on the record (and presumably off the record as well).
Signing Cousins was a win-now move, and the eighth overall pick could have been used to bolster that acquisition with a player who could make an immediate impact as a starter.
Nonetheless, there are scenarios where drafting Penix could conceivably work out for the Falcons, should Cousins go down with an injury as he did this past season with a torn Achilles, or if there is a transition several years out like there was from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love in Green Bay.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris cited the Packers “blueprint” in defending the selection of Penix.
However, if Penix will be 27 years old by the time he’s the starter if he sits for three years behind Cousins as Love did with Rodgers.
